Cookies law: Only two EU states implement full measures – so far

A pattern is emerging that shows European Member States greeting Brussels with a collective thumbs-down on its cookies law.

So far, the Commission has had just two submissions from countries that have agreed to fully adhere to the amendments to the e-Privacy Directive.

"Denmark and Estonia have notified measures to implement the whole package of telecoms reforms," European Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said.

Earlier today, The Registerrevealed that the Commission had concluded that the UK had "fallen short" of its legal obligation, after it issued a "partial notification" to Brussels on its cookies law implementation.

Similarly "France, Slovenia and Luxembourg have notified some of the measures," said Todd.

However, tellingly, the Commission is still waiting to hear from its 21 remaining Member States.

Those countries have until midnight tonight to submit notifications to the EC on what measures, if any, they will implement into national law.

It's understood that only one third of the 27-bloc members will meet the deadline.

In the UK, communications minister Ed Vaizey penned an open letter to website owners in a move to reassure retail and advertising outfits that the Commission's call for consent from users would not lead to them having to explicitly ask before installing a cookie on an individual's machine.

He argued that the "technical solutions" were yet to be put in place, hence the UK issuing only a "partial notification" to the EC. Publicly, the government has preferred to call it a "phased in approach".

Vaizey's department is working with the likes of Microsoft and Mozilla to bring in a browser-based fix on the cookies' issue; both of the companies now offer a do-not-track mechanism to their users.

In the meantime, the EC is faced with opening infringement cases against a large swathe of the European Union, whose governments today said no or yes – but with caveats attached. ®